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When a child refuses to poop

I have a 10 yr old nephew who refuses to poop. He puts it off and his parents have tried everything to make him go. He will have stains in his underwear and will even go so far as to hide his underwear so they don't see it. When he does finally go, his bm's are so large that they plug up the toilet. Why and what causes a child to do this?Is it physical or physchological? His parents are divorced and he is an only child. He is spolied and wants to play his video games  all the  time. they have tried taking the video games away and have tried punishment.  They know that  its not healthy for him to do this. His dad doesn't like the diet that his mom gives him. He thinks he should have more fiber in his diet. They are aware that it's going to take both parents to work together to solve this problem. What can they do to fix this problem with their child?
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Avatar universal
It sounds like your son has a problem with constipation. First of all, BM's that large hurt and tear his rectum, so he may be trying not to go because of the pain, I went thru this with my grandson.  He really can't help this, and should not be punished. What is happening is that he has some impacted stool, and what is getting into his underwear is leakage which he cannot control, it just leaks out.  Stool will stay in liquid form and go around the impaction and just seep out. But he will still have the large BMs. No child this age will go in their pants, it's highly embarrassing and the other kids can be cruel. The fact that he hides his underwear says he's embarrssed. Your nephew  needs to be evaluated by a pediatric gastroenterologist who will advise you to give him an enema or suppository to loosen this impaction.  Then he may want your son on Miralax (stool softener) for awhile. It not habit forming. Keep in mind that too much fiber is as constipating as not enough.  Please have the parents stop punishing him and get him help.  He is NOT doing this on purpose.
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Avatar universal
It may be lack of fiber but it's likely that he wasn't toilet trained properly and so doesn't understand the importance of "doing the doo" frequently - and into the toilet!  A lot of kids seem to have this problem nowadays...
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13167 tn?1327194124
They can easily put more fiber in his diet with Fiber One or bran fiber flakes on breakfast cereal.
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